The appellant was charged in the Regional Court, Vereeniging, with indecent assault and rape committed on 23 February 2000 against a complainant who was a family friend. The complainant testified that the appellant came to her home in the morning, made sexual advances, indecently assaulted her by digital penetration, and thereafter forced her into sexual intercourse without her consent. She reported the incident to her mother shortly thereafter, later to her doctor, and eventually to the police after her husband became aware of the allegations. The appellant denied ever being at the complainant’s house and relied on an alibi supported by a security entry slip allegedly showing he was at Dorbyl in Vereeniging at the relevant time. The trial court rejected the alibi, convicted him on both charges, and imposed ten years’ imprisonment for rape under the Criminal Law Amendment Act 105 of 1997, with six months for indecent assault to run concurrently. His appeals against conviction and sentence were dismissed by the High Court and thereafter by the Supreme Court of Appeal.
The appeal against both the convictions and the sentences was dismissed.
The case is significant for clarifying the evaluation of alibi evidence in light of the totality of the evidence and for confirming that a defence of consent in rape cases must be grounded in evidence and cannot be speculative, particularly when raised for the first time on appeal. It also affirms the strict application of the minimum sentencing provisions under the Criminal Law Amendment Act 105 of 1997.